Pharaoh’s “Descendants”?
As I type these words, I’m well into another year of a practice I started a number of years ago. Part of my morning routine is to begin each day listening to the Bible. I have an app on my phone that allows me to do that. The app that I use has a variety of plans, but I have always chosen one that will take me through the Bible in a calendar year. Most of the time I choose one that presents the text in chronological order. That is what I am doing again this year.
It has been a few weeks since I listened to the material in the book of Exodus that leads up to the actual departure of God’s people from Egypt. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Pharaoh’s blunt answer to the first request made to him about allowing God’s people to leave Egypt:
…Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go. (Ex. 5:2)
My most recent exercise in listening to Exodus caused me to notice something I had not noticed before. What I noticed for the first time took place as a result of the fourth plague (flies). For the first time, Pharaoh made a request. When one considers the power that Pharaoh had and his apparent temperament, the fact that he made a request is interesting enough. The actual request is even more interesting.
After agreeing to let the Israelites go on a three-day journey to offer sacrifice, this powerful and proud man asked for something to be done for him as God’s people worshiped. Depending on the translation you use, that “something” which he wanted done for him was:
plead – intreat – pray – make an appeal – intercede
It seems to me that there are people like Pharaoh today. You may have met some of them. Hopefully, you are not one of them.
Some of these people, like Pharaoh, are very open about their opposition to God. Others are not quite as bold as that, but their actions and conversations reveal very clearly that there are many things about which they are more interested than God. They don’t have time for Him or He is just not a priority (or both). That often changes when they are confronted with something that is beyond their control.
When they are confronted with a real crisis in their lives, they may for the first time consider the power of prayer and in the One to whom prayers are addressed. Now, they may seek out those friends whom they may have seen as some sort of “religious nuts” and who may have tried to talk to them about their relationship with God. They may (and often do) make a request that sounds very much like the one made by Pharaoh.
It is good to ask people to pray for us. Wouldn’t it be much better, though, if all of us had the kind of relationship with God that would enable us to ask others to pray with us and not merely for us?
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
